


Dark Works

by TheMistyCatMaster (TheMistyDarkPrincess)



Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: F/M, How do I tag this...?, I love Reno I swear!, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Imprisonment, Lust is Genderfluid, M/M, Multi, Not Beta Read, Psychological Torture, Seven Deadly Sins, Torture
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-07
Updated: 2018-08-12
Packaged: 2018-09-15 11:44:17
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 17
Words: 22,911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9233666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheMistyDarkPrincess/pseuds/TheMistyCatMaster
Summary: Shin-Ra has a new enemy that is playing a game that is more dangerous than any enemy the company has faced before.Reno is sent on a mission that goes wrong.  Now Shin-ra must try and get him back, while defeating the enemy who has taken him, but not everything is as it seems.





	1. The Beginning of Everything - Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> I started this a long time ago, high school maybe, and I have finally decided to post it.
> 
> I have been going through and rewriting it over and over, so if some things are jumpy or you would like me to look over something to make it a little more readable, let me know (politely) in the comments.

The loud music boomed through the dance club where a red-haired man sat bored, occasionally looking around.  The man felt the beat pulsing through the floor but sadly couldn’t go join the other moving figures, with the brilliant strobe lights flashing over their bodies on the dance floor, due to why he was there…  Not that he wanted to.  He was there for business, nothing more and nothing less, but that didn’t stop him from tapping his foot to the catchy beat.  

Moving his gaze to the drink he held lazily in his hand, he let out a sigh and then glanced at his newly obtained watch to see what time it was.  He hated the fact that he was stuck waiting for his inside informant to get back to him with the information he was to obtain from the meeting he was in at the moment.  In all honesty he thought being in this club, waiting for a man he hoped wouldn’t be found out, was a punishment from Rufus for the insubordination he had shown on his last mission…  Not that he could blame his boss for being pissed about it, it was a huge “fuck you” at the time.

“Hey, Red, you busy?”

A calm voice interrupted the man’s thoughts causing him to look behind him.

“Naw man.  Free as a bird.”

It was the code given to the two men in order to tell one another who they were.  The man who had interrupted the other’s thoughts gave a sigh of relief before he moved to sit down as inconspicuously as possible next to the other man.

“Reno, I got the info.”

He started, though now he was nervous, which caused the newly dubbed Reno to give him a “spit it out” gesture.

“Then spill it yo.  I don’t have all night.”

The man gave a nervous nod and then swallowed nervously.

“Shinra is right about the fact that someone is working to overthrow him.  One of the men in the room was talking about how his boss was finding ways to use some “homemade substance” to create a power source.  He didn’t tell us what was in the substance was, or how it was made,  but he did say that he would never have thought that what his boss was using could create the amount of energy it does.”

The man paused after he had said that.  Reno nodded and waited to see if there was anything else to report, but the man stayed silent seeming to become even more nervous.  It was after this occurred for more than ten minutes that Reno started to get suspicious.

“Okay, what’s up yo?  You have anything more, or are ya just gonna to sit there lookin’ like an idiot?”

The man jumped and then proceeded to stutter out an apology as he looked over quickly over his shoulder, jumped up from his seat, and began to scurry away as fast as his legs could carry him from the other.  Reno sat there for only a second before his mind caught up with the situation and he proceeded to turn in his, just in time to block a fist headed towards the back on his head with his EMR.  The attacker’s fist shook against the metal rod as Reno put an equal force pushing back the fist still being pressed forward.

“Let me guess…  You’re workin’ for the man I’m after information on?”

Reno casually asked as the two continued their stand still.  The whole club, by now, had panicked and many of the patrons had run out, while the workers and bouncers were nowhere to be seen.

“And what if I am Turk?  You’re on our turf and we don’t appreciate snooping.  In fact we don’t appreciate it so much that we tend to get rid of snoops.”

The attacker stated as he suddenly glanced to the side and nodded before jumping away from Reno who got up and moved his EMR to the side the first attacker had looked, just in time to hit the fist of another attacker off it’s path.  He was, however, unable to stop what happened next, as a gun was heard shooting off the round that inevitably made its way into his right shoulder.  The pain nearly made Reno drop his EMR as he threw his left hand up to the wound automatically to try and staunch the blood flow from the wound.

“I thought you were supposed to be the Turk quickest on his feet.”

One of his attackers spoke as the third attacker, the one who had shot him, approached. Reno looked towards the man who had spoken with a scowl of disgust.

“I’m a little off my game.  Must be whatever it was you slipped into my drink.  Am I right Mr. Bartender”

The man merely laughed.

“Congrats on finding that out.  It’s too bad though, Reno of the Turks...  Your boss decided to mess with the wrong people tonight and you’re the one here paying the price.  Doesn’t that seem a little unfair to you?  It doesn’t seem fair to me.”

Now the men were moving closer to Reno, who seemed to be failing at gathering his bearings.

“Tell me Turk…  How do you feel right now?”

Reno’s eyebrow rose at the question as he tried to steady his now blurring vision.  In all honesty he was starting to feel like he had been hit with a boulder.  Not just because of whatever he had slipped into his drink, (which, damnit he should have noticed!) but because of the loss of blood as well.

“Why ya concerned about me?  Are ya suddenly havin’ a change of heart yo?”

He questioned with a weak laugh, trying to keep his weight from buckling his weakening knees. His joints were starting to feel like they were becoming disconnected from one another.

“Why yes Turk, I am concerned.  After all, I just made you the first test subject for the substance that will help make my boss's new energy source.”

Those words had Reno reeling as his eyes widened and the severity of the situation came into perspective.  He hadn’t been slipped a normal ruffie!  He had been slipped a mad man’s experiment, or one of a mad man’s experiments!  Sloppily, and as inconspicuously as he could, Reno lowered his weapon, since the second attacker was too busy gloating with the first and third while they stood around his slowly disconnecting form, and returned it to its holder for better carrying as he readied himself for what he was going to do next.

He didn’t even really have time to think his slowly coming together plan all the way through before he launched himself to the side, surprising the two men who had boxed him in, and caused both to jolt back due to their surprise.  This caused a perfect opening to form, which Reno took advantage of and began to run as best he could with his current situation.  The man who had first attacked him made to launch for him so he could grab him, but missed when Reno, launched himself over one of the tables trying to put distance between him and his attackers.  There was some cursing behind him, probably the man with the gun trying to get it into a position to shoot.

As he ran, Reno fought off the signals his body was sending him, ignoring the feeling of his knees weakening with every footfall, ignoring the fact his body was screaming at him about the blood loss. The feelings only made him push himself to move faster as he weaved his way through the club, dodging the newly fired bullets from his third attacker and the attempts to grab him from the other two, until he reached the exit.  Shoving open the doors he quickly, ignoring the shooting pain and the dizziness, bolted out and turned to the right in a hopes that heading towards the living quarters area nearby, he would lose his pursuers. 

By now, his lungs were barely pulling anything into them as they fought to get the oxygen needed to keep him going.  His heart was pumping faster, but each beat felt like it was straining to occur while simultaneously feeling like it was going to burst out of its holding space at any moment (this while each beat led to more blood escaping his gunshot wound).  His stomach felt as though it was going to send its contents out, what little it held of his breakfast, lunch, and the snacks Rude had gotten him before he left.  But the worst feeling off all was that of his nerves beginning to burn as though each had been turned into a miniature torch under his skin.  With all of these things started to affect him in their own way, he began looking for the nearest alley so he could call Rude to come and get him ASAP while hopefully being able to hide and try to force down whatever was happening to him.  

Glancing around the area he was in, and glancing behind him to see if his pursuers were nearby, he noticed that he had seemingly outrun them.  Giving a quiet, pained laugh of relief, he took note of a nearby alleyway opening and made his way over to it.  Checking the area once more, he slipped into the alley, leaned against the openings wall, and dug around in his suit for his phone. Opening it, he hit the one button to speed dial his partner and placed the phone to his ear as soon as the phone said that it was dialing. The waiting was agonizing, and Reno could only hope that his partner would pick up soon before he couldn’t get the words he needed to leave his mouth as it had started to feel like cotton had been shoved into it.

Thankfully, even though it took a good number of rings and bit of growing anxiety, Reno heard someone on the other line pick up.

“Hello?”

It was Rude.  Reno thanked his lucky stars.

“Rude…  Need…  Ride… Now.  Found…  Ousted.  Was…  Roofied.  Shit…  Don’t…  Know….”

He forced out sloppily as he felt his breathing start to change into more desperate, needy pants that were even worse than before when he had been running.  The other side exploded with sounds of the other man shooting up from his desk and grabbing things.

“Where are you Reno?!”

Reno would have laughed, if his situation was not so serious, at the sound of his partner’s voice pitching slightly higher than normal due to his concern.

“Alley…  Right…   Club.  Might…  Move…  Soon.  Pursued…     
Shot....”

Reno heard Rude give a swear and heard the sound of a door being slammed shut.

“If you have to keep moving, stay in the shadows partner, I’m on my way!”

Rude’s voice sounded through the phone, now slightly too loud for Reno’s ear.

“Rodger....”

Reno responded before he pushed himself off the wall he was leaned against, and began to head further down the alley.  Then he cursed silently, and once more moved to lean against the wall, this time in the shadows.  Appearing just after he had pressed himself into the shadows, In the back opening to the alley, was one of his attackers, obviously looking for him.  Just as he was about to start inching back towards the opening he had entered from, it became blocked by his other two attackers.

“Little Reno, where are you?  I know you’re in there.”

The first attacker called into the alleyway tauntingly.  Reno hoped that it was because he couldn’t see him, and not because he was being an asshole and taunting him.  Shifting his position against the wall slightly caused him to freeze, as his whole body suddenly felt like he had caught on fire and his vision chose that moment to to darken his surroundings.  All he could do was bite his tongue then to hold back the scream that wanted to tear itself out of his throat.  That’s when he started to do something he was never prone to do.  He prayed.  He literally felt his mind reach out towards the life stream and beg for it to make the men leave so he could meet up with Rude and get back to Shinra so he could get checked out and set right.  It seemed to ignore him, however, because, for the very reason he didn’t like praying due to his more cynical world view, the men never moved.  Instead it seemed as though they were guarding the exits. 

“Come out, come out wherever you are Turk.  You cannot hide any longer.  This game of cat and mouse is over.”

His first attacker called into the alley way, which only caused Reno to internally curse at the man, and then berate himself for letting the other get him into this state.  The silence to his taunting made the man let out an annoyed huff.

“You do realize that If you don’t come out of wherever you’re hiding, we’ll just come in and find you right?  And that wound must be bring death to you right now.”

The man moved a few steps into the alley to prove his point about coming after Reno.  Instead of letting this get to him, Reno remained silent and pushed himself even further against the wall, ignoring his pain and the want of his body to just give up and go limp, hoping that at any minute Rude would be driving by in his car and take notice of the odd scene taking place outside the alley.  

That’s when he heard it.  There was the faint sound of a car coming to a halt outside of the alleyway, behind his second and third attackers.  This brought a smile to Reno’s face until he heard his attackers greet whoever it was that was getting out of the car by the title of boss.

“So…  The rat is in here?”

A darker voice sounded loudly into the alley, as a new man appeared in the opening of the alleyway, the second and third attacker having turned in such a way to let him in.

“He’s in here alright Boss.  Playing in the shadows.  Not sure how his hair isn’t standing out though.”

“Didn’t I tell you not to underestimate the enemy?  If he’s in there, I want you to drag him out.  The fact that he has been fighting the first effects of the substance so well, makes him valuable.  We may not have need for another rat at this rate.”

As this conversation was going on Reno was slowly slipping into unconsciousness against the wall behind him, though he was going to make sure that he wouldn’t go down without a fight.  Slowly he reached for his EMR, ready to give the men the fight of their lives despite his lack of strength and blurring consciousness.

His grip, however, slipped sending the EMR to the ground at his feet out of the reach of his sagging body, and seemed to alert his pursuers to his exact location.  Soon after he felt himself being manhandled out of his hiding spot, and thrown down to the ground where he was pinned.

“Be careful with him!  He is a vital piece of equipment!”

Reno heard the darker sounding man from before yelling at whoever was holding him down, before everything finally fell into a pain filled darkness.


	2. Waking Up and Goin' Back Down

Light erupted into Reno’s eyes as they slowly opened, causing a hiss to escape his lips and his eyes to fall shut once more to avoid the pain they had been subjected to.

“I see that you’re awake.”

A voice came from somewhere near Reno which caused him to open his eyes to once again to search out where it had come from.  There in a corner of the room, on the left side, was the man from before, the cause of all that had happened up until now.  The man had a smug look on his face.

“I was expecting you to have woken up earlier, but I guess what they say about you being the sloppiest, yet most dedicated, Turk was true.  How do you feel after two days worth of sleep?  Better?  Worse?  About the same?”

Reno didn’t answer the man’s jibes, instead his eyes began to flicker around the room for any clues as to where he was and if he had any way at all of getting away.  There were no windows in the room, and only one door that looked like it had a complex outside lock as well as a complex inside lock to make sure it was extra secured.  No luck there unless he found a way to crack the lock.  He then looked at where he was.  He was attached by wired chains that were connected to some odd machine yet he had leeway and could move around if he so desired, his clothes had been removed down to his boxers.  The man must have seen his confused expression because he moved to a panel that was just far enough that Reno could not reach it and waved his hand over it.

“The substance I introduced to your system had only been tested in its liquid form and it was able to light a light bulb, and in a rat which was able to power a computer.  Since we found the rat could live with it in its system, we needed to move to testing on a source which we are sure could produce more power with it in their system, a human.  That is where you come in Turk.”

The man began turning to Reno as the panel began to light up.

“We were waiting for you to wake up because we want to see the full results of our test.”

Reno didn’t like the sound of that.  He didn’t like the sound of it at all.

“What the hell does that have to do with chainin’ me to this thing in nothin’ but my boxers yo?”

The man chuckled.

“Well, we could take no chances of you have things hidden in your clothes that could help you to escape and they were in the way of us attaching you to the machine.”

Reno scowled at the response and was about to give his retort when he felt himself being yanked back by the chains on his wrists and ankles.  He didn’t even have time to react as he was pulled off the floor and into the machine in such a way where his torso was hanging forward while his limbs were pulled slightly behind him.  The machine then began to close a set of doors in front of him trapping him in.  By now Reno was struggling against his restraints not liking what was happening one bit.  His struggles were put to a stop however as he felt like something was being pulled from him.  In shock he watched as his body began to glow as did the wires that were attached to the chains that held him.  As the glow grew the more it felt like he was being drained and the more the pain began to make itself known.

Reno bit the inside of his cheek as the pain continued to increase, trying hard to not allow anything to slip as to how much pain he was in.  This lasted for the longest amount of time he could comprehend before finally the pain got to him and he felt the force as well as heard the sound of his voice joining the humming of the machine that was holding him.  As soon as the sound escaped his lips the machines humming began to come to a slow stop and Reno felt himself being dropped onto the ground just below the doors that held him inside the machine.  

He was shaking, his limbs feeling as though they had been ripped from their sockets.  What had just happened to him?  Shakily, Reno looked up to see the man was gone and that he was alone in the room which confused him greatly.  What was going on?  Was he hallucinating?  He was sure the man had been in the room the whole time.  In an attempt to find out what was going on, he tried to stand and move to the center of the room away from the machine, only to have his consciousness began to waver as he got about halfway up.

“I would not do that Reno.  You might injure yourself.”

Reno’s head snapped to look behind him.  There, by the machine, was the man his face pulled into a gleeful smirk.

“Fuck you man!  What the hell did you do to me?!”  

Reno retorted, though his voice was rough from the screams that had escaped him while in the grasp of the machine.  The man moved to walk towards Reno, each step echoing in the room that suddenly felt like a cemetery.

“I turned you into the source of my boss’s new energy supply.  Congratulations, Turk, you have turned out to be very useful.  Though I guess if I wish to keep you hidden from your pesky employer, I’m going to have to call you something new.  Don’t want you to be found and taken away now do we?”

Reno felt a rush of cold go down his spine at those words, but he glared defiantly at the man, his eyes dark with hidden fury.

“This is Shinra you’re fuckin’ with man.  You will find out, the rest of the Turks will come and when they do I can’t wait to see what they will do to you.”  

He spat.  The man merely laughed.

“Let them come then.  They are going to be nothing against what we have planned.  The man, who hired us and gave us the research and this facility, is not stupid by any means.  Now stop talking Ace.”

Reno sputtered at the sudden name change.

“‘Ace’, what the hell do ya mean by ‘Ace’?”

The man merely smiled at Reno and walked past him to the door having been walking for the whole conversation.  Before he exited however, the man stopped and looked back at Reno’s slowly slumping figure.

“You are our ace.  Therefore I thought it was appropriate to call you Ace from now on.  Get used to it.  Oh, you may call me Wrath.”

He stated before he opened the door with the password and stepped out, the door closing with a resounding slam behind him.  This left Reno alone in the room slowly feeling all his leftover energy slipping away, still kneeling where he had been on the floor after his attempt to get up.

“ _ I can’t stay like this…  I have to get out of here and fast. _ ”  Reno thought, once more looking around the room.  Nothing stood out but the door, the machine’s control panel, and the huge machine he was attached to.  Reno gritted his teeth in frustration.  This situation was shit.  Figuring if he didn’t find a way out now, he was going to be stuck for a while until Shinra found him, he tried to stand again and instead ended up jolting forward, eyes wide as an unimaginable pain shot through him causing him to hit the floor due to the quick movement.  His organs felt as though they were on fire as well as his nerves.  His vision blurred and sharpened at random intervals while blood began a trail from his nose and mouth.  He felt as though he was going to die, if he didn’t he was sure he would want to if this continued.  Finally, as though blessed by a dark angel, his vision turned black as did the world around him, embracing him in sweet unconscious bliss.


	3. Just Wait

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is chapter 2

It had been two weeks since Reno had been sent out to look for the so called competitor that had come up.  Two long weeks since Rude had gotten the call on his cell phone from Reno asking for him to pick him up because he had been compromised.  Two weeks since the so called competitor showed his face to the world.  And two weeks since Reno had gone missing.  There had been no sign of the red haired Turk anywhere Shinra sent out people to look and it was beginning to grate on the nerves of many.  Right now all operations to look for the missing Turk had been put on hold to look into the newly risen Inferno Electrical Company.  The newest company claimed to have a friendlier version of energy than that which Shinra offered.  Because of that many people were switching companies so as to get out from under Shinra’s reach.

Rude was tapping his foot as he waited for the elevator to come to a stop and let him out on the floor he had been meaning to make a stop at ever since the search for his partner had been put on hold.  He was going to talk to the President.  He was going to talk to the Rufus Shinra and get him to realize that leaving Reno for dead was not the brightest idea he had ever had.  Reno was a valued member of the Turks team and the second in command.  What would happen say Tseng was taken out for the count?  Where would the Turks be then?  

Finally the annoying ding of the elevator rang throughout the enclosed space before the doors to the floor opened and Rude practically threw his large form out and onto the floor on the other sides of the door.  He quickly organized himself and made his way in a swift motion that only he could pull off for someone of his muscle mass, to the door that held behind it the one man who could make all the final decisions stand, the President of the Shinra Electric Company.

Rufus Shinra had been doing paperwork when he was interrupted and was, to say the least, surprised to see it was Rude who was entering his office, without a single knock or announcement.  He had merely opened the door and strode in, his face set in a determined look.

“Sir, we need to talk.”

Rufus raised an eyebrow at the Turks statement.

“And why by chance do we need to talk?  What is so important that you decided that knocking was not important?  I could have been in a private meeting, Rude.  This is not like you at all.  You usually follow orders and protocol.”

Rude clenched his fists at his side to keep himself calm at the comments thrown at him.

“We need to talk about Reno, Sir.”

Rufus immediately sat forward, his elbows coming to rest on the paperwork that now was forgotten as he placed his hands in front of his face fingers crossed into each other.

“There is nothing to talk about Rude.  It has been two weeks.  Reno is most likely dead by now.  I don’t like the thought of it either, but do you think he would like it if you or I or any of the other Turks decided to put everything on hold when he had tried to do his job to stop the company we are up against now?  There is nothing to discuss and therefore no reason for you to be here.”

Rude moved forward instantly, almost as though he wasn’t fully thinking about what he was about to do, and slammed his hands on Rufus’ desk, leaning forward so they were face to face.

“Reno is not dead!  I would know Sir!  I have worked with him long enough to know that he is not one to die in an alley like the person he was before!  He is not dead and he will be less likely to die now if we send out someone to find his ass and drag it back!”

Rufus merely blinked calmly at the shouts of mixed protest and fury.

“Rude, get out of my office then and start looking.  Prove me wrong.”  

Was his response after the two stared each other down for a couple of minutes.

That was all it took.  Rude turned and walked to the door, before he left however, Rufus could hear the man mutter a small thank you and then he was gone, the door closing behind him.  Rude, as soon as door to Rufus’ office was closed, made his way to the stairs, forsaking the elevator.  He quickly made his way down two flights to where the Turk offices were and stormed into his and Reno’s shared office to grab his badge and his gun.  He glanced at Reno’s messy desk and made the decision to grab his partner’s spare EMR before he made his way back out of the office.  His endeavor was put to a halt however, as Tseng made an appearance in the entryway of the office, a confused stern look on his face.

“Rude what are you doing?”

Rude didn’t even bother with a response as he pushed past his director and headed for the elevator.

“Rude, I ask you to tell me what you are doing.”

Tseng’s voice was hard and held in it the power that made him the director of the Turks.  Rude turned partially, moving his sunglasses partially down his face.

“I’m going to find my partner, Boss’s orders.”

Tseng hid his smirk well as those words were spoken.

“Then why are you still here?  I do believe you are under orders from the President get moving.”

Rude didn’t hide his amused look as he slipped his sunglasses back on fully and began his trek to the elevator once more.

“ _ Hang on Partner.  I’m on my way. _ ”


	4. Two Weeks in Hell

Reno stared blankly at the walls that had become his norm as of two weeks ago.  The slightly off-white walls bounced the light around the room from the artificial sunlight the lights in the room were programmed to give off every other hour except at night.  Because of this, Reno had been able to keep up with what time it was in the outside world.  Right at the moment it was somewhere in the four in the afternoon range and soon he would be brought his early dinner before Wrath put him through another session with the machine.  That’s how it had been after his first day of capture.  In the morning at around five, he is woken up by a man named Sloth and given his food, though he considered that lucky due to the man’s nonchalant and uncaring nature.  He then was put through a session with the machine that lasted ten minutes to get the thing warmed up for the afternoon.

At around eleven he was given lunch by a girl who went by Avarice, who would complain about how she was treated so poorly and how she was not getting paid enough for it.  She would then unattached him from the machine (only for him to be attached to her by a pair of handcuffs which he found to be disconcerting) and lead him out of the room for the one thing that he was allowed to be out for, exercise.  Soon after he was done with his round of whatever they made him do, it was right back to the room and right back to being attached to the machine that would buzz to life when he was reattached to it, almost as though it was welcoming him back to its demonic hands.

At around four every day, he was given an early dinner by Wrath and then he had his actual session with the machine.  He had yet to figure out how long he was kept in the cold confines of the hellish thing, but it was long enough that he was pretty sure his voice would permanently go out if it continued like this.  In fact, many times he wondered if he could just die.

Just then the door opened to reveal Wrath, himself, holding a tray of food in both hands, and a smile on his face.

“Hello Ace, nice to see you seem to be doing well.”

Reno merely blinked deadly at the statement.  He may have been fine physically, but not mentally.  Wrath took no notice to the lack of voiced response.

“I have brought your dinner.  Eat up.  Wouldn’t want our star to get sick now would we?”

The man placed the tray in front of Reno at that statement and then stood back to watch.  Reno mechanically reached a hand out to the tray, ignoring the screams of protest from his alit nerves.  As soon as the tray was within a good distance of reach that didn’t cause him pain, Reno’s hands went to work grabbing the food off the tray and stuffing it in his mouth in an android like motion before he chewed, swallowed, then repeated.  He ate fast.  Much faster than one would think he would considering the part that came after the giving of the food, but after the first two or three times he tried to eat at an extremely slow speed the food was taken from him and he was automatically given to the machine.  He felt that he now truly fit his part.  The part of being the core to the thing he was sure was going to be the death of him.

With the pace he was eating at, Reno finished his food mere moments after he got it and soon felt the tug of the machine trying to pull him into its hold.  He relaxed into the pull otherwise he knew he would be feeling pain in his shoulders later having learned his lesson from the times this had been done before.  To a normal person two weeks was not a long time, but it was an eternity in a situation like this.  The machine greedily sucked its core into it and then lifted him into its cold, welcoming grasp, closing the doors behind his lifted form and centered him as it had done for the two weeks it had him in its throws.

Reno immediately bit into his cheek and waited for the pain to hit, which it did at a force that was slowly growing more intense with each day he was forced into this.  His form began to glow and he soon felt the pulling away of whatever was turning him into an energy source for the machine.  He felt sick.  Soon enough the scream he tried to hold back escaped him and mixed with the whirring of the machine.  This time however the scream was not enough to make the man near the control panel turn the machine off.  He was going to be in the machine for as long as the President said he would for the day.

As the machine continued what it was programmed to do, Reno felt his throat start to strain, much like he knew it would, but something else began to occur as well.  Slowly something began to slide down the right side of his face and the smell of copper filled the enclosed space with its sickening smell.  That was what made the man at the console turn the machine off.  Reno instantly felt himself fall to the floor and land face first onto the cold tile that lined it.  He could hear Wrath’s shoes tapping on the tile as he walked towards him to stop by his side.  He then heard the rustling of cloth as one of Wrath’s hands reached out and grabbed his hair pulling him up slightly from the floor.

“Well Ace…  It seems you have met your limit for the month.  I shall tell the boss.  You’re lucky.  How do you feel about a break?  You’re going to be getting one for at least a week.”

Reno’s head fell back to the tile with a sickening crack at the last words Wrath spoke.  In a desperate attempt to flip himself over so he wasn’t face planted onto the floor, Reno slowly began to push himself up on weak arms.  His vision blurred and he could feel blood from his nose running to meet the blood coming from the right side of his face on his chin before dripping onto the tile but he was able to get his upper torso off the floor in enough time to see the door to his personal hellhole close.  He adjusted himself as slowly as he could, trying to keep the blur in his vision to a minimum, starting with his legs which he pulled under him into a kneeling position.  He then slowly began to extend them out one after the other until he was sitting flat on the ground.  After that was accomplished, Reno slowly lowered the rest of himself to the floor and stared at the ceiling.  The liquid that kept him alive was now flowing down the side of his face on both sides from his nose though the right side was still worse because the blood was still flowing from wherever it had started from.

Gingerly, Reno lifted his right hand and brought it to the side of his face to trace where the blood had begun to flow from.  His fingers gently rested themselves on the shell of his ear and he traced down until his fingers felt a warmth run over them.  He had started bleeding from his ear in the machine.  His arm began to ache as he left it under the flow of the crimson life and Reno soon had to drop the hand back to where it had started out on the floor.  He could hear the sound of footsteps coming closer and closer to the door to his holding area now, each one echoing with an untold consequence.  Closing his eyes, Reno tried to picture it being someone from Shinra finally coming to save him though in the back of his mind he knew that it wasn’t.  The door opened.  Reno opened his eyes and tilted his head towards it, the blood flowing a tad more at the motion.  There walking into the room was a man he hadn’t seen before and Wrath, both looked displeased with his condition.

“It seems worse than you told me Wrath.”

The new man’s voice rang out coldly in the room.  Wrath merely stared at Reno with narrowed eyes.

“The broken nose happened when he was trying to get up no doubt.  I left him face down on the floor.”

The other man raised an eyebrow at this and looked over at Wrath for a merely moment before he waved to someone waiting at the area outside the door.

“Come take care of him.”

Reno couldn’t help but shiver at the tone used but he couldn’t say anything as whoever it was that had just entered made their way to him out of sight and stuck him with something.  Feeling the needle enter his skin, Reno jolted before his body felt a spasm of pain as the darkness he had been fighting back rushed up to embrace him in its hold.


	5. One Becomes Another

Reno’s eyes blinked open to a darkened room with a beeping sound coming from his left, a heart monitor by the sound of it. His eyes roamed the darkness in a pain filled narrowed gaze trying to grasp where he was. He was obviously not in his normal room, that room had no windows and there was also no machine in this room other than the one that was signaling that he was still alive with its steady soundings. There was a shifting in the corner of the room drawing Reno’s attention to it.

  
“Mister, are you awake?”

  
A childish voice asked from the darkness of where the movement had come from. Reno was thrown off by the sound but decided to not answer and pretend he was still out of it and his movements were sleep based.

  
“Mister, you know it’s rude to not answer a question by faking you’re something you’re not.”

  
Reno watched as a figure began to move forward after those words. It was the figure of a male child no more than ten.

  
“So you are awake, Mister. You should have answered me then. Boss will be happy to know you’re up. He’ll praise me for letting him know! I love being praised!”

  
The child chirped running for the door and opening it to lean out and talk to someone outside the door. Knowing the boy was distracted, Reno tried to sit up and throw his legs over the side of the bed to try and make it to the window to escape, his resolve restored at the thought of an escape route. His thoughts suddenly had to be put on hold however when he felt his arms not moving from where they were at his sides, nor did his feet move at the movements he attempted. His eyes shot to the door where a hand was now rested on the boy who had been in the room’s head almost like it was petting it. The boy’s eyes shone brightly at the action.

  
Reno then watched as the hand fell away and the boy moved back into the room to allow someone into the room and a shiver flew up his spine. Entering was the man who had been with Wrath before he blacked out.

  
“Good to see you are awake, Ace. We would not like it if you had gone into a coma on us.”

  
The man’s voice was cold and held an edge of cruel enjoyment at his pain, but also a bit of sickening sweetness that made his words seem like he sincerely would have been pissed had he gone into a coma. Reno stayed silent. The man merely shrugged off his lack of response and turned to look at the little boy still by the door.

  
“Pride, you are free to go and play with your sister. Good job with watching Ace.”

  
The boy’s eyes lit up once again at the praise before he bowed to the man and then scurried through the door laughing cheerfully. The man then turned his attention to Reno once more and looked him over with steely, dark eyes.

  
“I forget you really are human.”  
Reno stared at the man like he had lost it at that statement.  
“Whatcha mean by “really are human”?”

  
The man shook his head at the question and moved to where there was a syringe lying on a nearby tray.

  
“It won’t matter in a few minutes. This is going to change that and then we won’t have any repeats of yesterday.”

  
Reno didn’t like the sound of that. He could only watch however as the man picked up the syringe and turned to where he could see it clearly. The syringe was filled with a glowing red substance that pulsed with a strange black light. The sight of it had Reno’s blood running cold.

  
“Whoa, whoa, whoa man what’s with the syringe man?! Didn’t you already shoot me with the damn thing that causes me to be a human battery yo?!”

  
He asked in a panicked voice as the man moved forward with the syringe. The man laughed.

  
“Yes we did, but your life is apparently too short for it not to kill you when we use you as a “battery” again. This will insure you live and it adds one more to my ranks. I have been looking for someone to add. It is truly annoying to not have all your game pieces in play correct?”

  
The man then grabbed Reno’s upper arm and lifted it as far as it would go and placed the needle against the skin. Reno began to panic more and tried to move his arm away from the needle and whatever was inside it. The man had a firm grip on his arm however and he could only watch with wide eyes as the needle pierced his skin and the plunger of the syringe was pushed forward making the liquid in it enter his bloodstream. The effects were instantaneous and Reno felt a scream rip from his lips as his back arched off the bed. Fire was running through his veins, his nervous, and his muscles. The man pushed him back onto the bed and held him there.

  
“This only hurts if you fight it Ace.”

  
Reno bit his lip as he fought to stop the screams that were still escaping, though they were only muffled and he shook his head at the words to let the man know we was not going to stop fighting. The man let out as sigh and went to move away from Reno only to put more pressure on him to hold him down as he began to convulse.

  
“Shit! Wrath, get in here!”

  
The man shouted out with frustration. In an instant Wrath was inside the room from where he had been still outside the room and took over holding Reno down as the other man moved to get the torso restraint on him.

  
“Make sure he does not swallow or bite his tongue!”

The man ordered as he finished getting the restraint around Reno’s torso.

  
Wrath nodded at the order and forced his finger into Reno’s mouth to hold it open so he could place his handkerchief in it to do just that. The man and Wrath then moved away and watched as Reno began to stop convulsing only to start shivering as though he was cold. His skin soon began to turn blue as did his lips and his hair began to grow just a tad bit longer. Wrath moved back to him then and pulled the handkerchief out of his mouth then moved back away again watching in fascination at the transformations. The man on the other hand watched with a non-amused look.

  
“It seems he may not have been equipped to deal with this.”

  
Wrath looked towards him.

  
“Who was he supposed to be sir?”

  
The man continued to watch Reno, as his skin began to return to its normal color, though his lips did not, and cocked an eyebrow, a devious smile crossing his face.

  
“Or maybe he was…”

  
Wrath was still confused by his boss’ musings as he did not see the same thing his boss did.

  
“Sir, who was he supposed to be?”

  
He asked again sending a confused look at his boss. The man gave a giant smirk as he looked towards his subordinate.

  
“Don’t you mean who did he become?”

  
Wrath blinked and looked back at Reno, now noticing the changes to the man.

  
“Lust has finally joined our family once again.”

  
Reno’s hair was now longer than before, his lips an ice crystal blue that shown in the darkness of the room. He was also a lot lither though it did not make him look unhealthy at all, instead adding a sort of new charm to the male. He looked like he was a statue his skin finally stabilizing at an alabaster pale having fluctuated from frozen blue to natural tan and back so many times.

  
“Now we just have to wait for him to wake up and then we can get back to business. A bonus to having him exist as Lust is that he won’t feel the effects of the machine as badly as before. Even fact he might wish to be in it more.”

  
The man mused aloud with a demonic grin on his face.


	6. Rude Finds a Clue

Rude had not had any luck so far as he searched the area he was sure Reno was last in. There was nothing left behind to give him a clue, not a single sign his partner had tried to give him a lead before being captured. That fact in particular had Rude worried more than he was originally. Reno would not have given up without a fight and the fact that there was no sign of a struggle meant that whatever he had been shot with must have affected him in such a way that it made it impossible for him to get his two cents in. Rude shook the thought off quickly and began to look once more trying to find some sort of clue, anything at all that could be used to find his missing partner.

A few blocks away, a building lit up suddenly as though someone had finally decided to flip all the lights on. Rude’s eyes trailed to it from his search. It was a building he had been becoming acquainted with, Inferno Electrical Company. Rude’s eyes narrowed at the thought of being so close to the building without back up. It had appeared out of nowhere where the club Reno had gone to, to get information had been practically overnight and it gave off an air that even the SOLDIERS were intimidated by. His eyes averted back to his search.

“You’re not going to find anything here Mister.”

A young voice cut in from the right entrance of the alley as Rude began to move towards the other side to search over there. Startled by the suddenness, Rude glanced over in the direction the voice had come from, his expression staying calm and collected. It was a little girl no more than eight, holding a teddy bear in front of her chest.

“What do you mean?”

Rude couldn’t help but asked, genuinely wanting to know why the little girl had said such a thing. The girl looked down at her bear, fluffing one of its ears.

“You’re looking for Big Brother Lust. I was told you wanted to take him away by boss and even Jealousy said so, didn’t you Jealousy?”

The girl moved the bear so that it was facing her and made it nod before facing it forward and pulling it to her chest once again.

“See, even Jealousy says you’re after Big Brother Lust. It’s because we took him from you and brought him home to where he belongs. You don’t like the fact that we took him. I’m not happy you had him! We wanted him for so long! I wanted him for so long! You aren’t going to take him back!”

The girl’s disposition changed quickly and her skin began to turn a sickening green.

“I’ll kill you here and then boss will be happy and Big Brother Lust will stay with us forever and ever!”

The girl threw her bear out to the side and it turned into a sword. Rude pulled out his gun and aimed.

“What are you?”

He asked keeping the gun trained on the girl as she adjusted her grip on her sword. The girl sent him a sickly sweet smile.

“I’m an Embodiment.”

Rude didn’t have time to register what the answer to his question had been as he stumbled back right as the sword made contact with the concrete where he had been standing, leaving a huge crater and half crumbled walls in its wake.

“Whoopsies, I missed!”

The girl lifted the sword once more and trained it on Rude, her eyes gleaming. Rude took this time to fire. The girl twisted and turned around the bullets as though she was dancing before launching herself forward in attack. Rude had no choice but to scurry back once again as the sword fell once again where he had been, the damage more extensive. The girl giggled before she began to outright laugh.

“You can dodge really well Mister! Now stop it and let me hit you won’t you please?”

The girl raised her sword once more only to stop and look at the company not far away. The lights had gone off and the building, was glowing a red color. Rude’s eyes followed the girls and landed on the same thing. The light was soft but it seemed to be flashing in such a way that seemed like it was calling to something, the light a beckoning hand. The girl’s eyes watered.

“Big Brother Lust is calling me home. Big Brother Lust wants everyone home. He’s lonely without everyone home.”

She looked over at Rude who had returned his gaze back to her when she had started to speak. Her eyes narrowed at the man.

“Never come here again.”

She said, her sword turning back into her bear, and her skin returning to its natural color. Rude was about to say something when she raised her hand into the air and a green light began to pulse from it mixing with the red from the company building. The red light seemed to shudder and then the pulsing grew more rapid. The girl smiled and then turned walking away from Rude, who was too stunned to do anything. When the girl reached the entrance to the alleyway again she turned to send one more sneer at Rude before taking off in a run out and to the left. Rude reacted quickly to try and get a shot off before she disappeared from sight but was too late as the girl was now gone from his sight.

With a frustrated sound Rude lowered his gun but instead of trying to follow the little girl, he quickly made his way through the rubble caused by the girl’s sword and made his way to his car. He had to go back to Shinra. He had an idea of where Reno was and there was another thing that needed to be reported. The “Embodiment” he had just run into.


	7. Embodiments Meeting

The room continued to pulse red as a figure sat in the center of it. The figure was shackled to the machine that sat in the room, head bent down, breathing ragged. Beside him was another figure kneeling, its hand resting on the first back in a comforting gesture.

“She’s not back yet…”

The first figure gasped, raising his head to look longingly at the door.

“She’ll be here Lust, just wait. Your Little Sister will return and then you will see everyone again.”

The second figure soothed rubbing between the one identified as Lust’s shoulder blades. Lust let out a soft sound of enjoyment at the action. He loved it someone did something like this for him. The second figure smiled deviously at the sound and shook his head with a dark chuckle.

“Still the same, that’s good to know. We weren’t sure this body would be able to hold you at first and when you actually took it over we worried you would have been changed somehow.”

Lust looked at the other, his breathing having finally slowed down enough to allow him proper speech.

“Hmmm, me change? How would I change? Devi, I haven’t changed since they tried to make me stay in the first three poor saps that had nothing that I could take hold of. Why on earth would one little Shinra Turk cause me to change? His bodies so perfect, it’s already felt what I embody and acted on it many a time. He is the most stable choice that you could have given me as a tribute. Plus the fact that he was our main source of power allows me to feel the effects of the machine we created the last time we embodied those scientists.”

The second figure laughed coldly.

“Lust, I have told you before, call me “boss” or “sir” not “Devi” or “Devilic”.”

Lust felt shiver run up his spine and merely bowed slightly in his sitting state.

“Forgive me sir.”

The other man reached out and grabbed Lust under his chin forcing the other to make eye contact.

“You are only going to be forgiven, if you can tell me what the Turk knows. But you’ll have to tell me later as the others are here now. Do you not feel them?”

The room pulsed a red brighter than before as Lust’s eyes lit up. The man released the others chin and watched as the door opened to allow the others entry into the room. The room was flooded by faces that Lust couldn’t recognize, but he knew that they were the others; their inner lights were wrapping the room with familiarity.

“Lust, oh wow, look at you! I could lock you up and never let you go again!”

Lust looked at the one who had spoken, a girl with the golden inner light he immediately identified as Avarice.

“Ava, baby, nice to see you too.”  
He flirted as the other rolled her eyes.

“Don’t you ever get tired of flirting with our Sisters, Lust?”

Another voice interrupted the almost continued communication between Lust and Avarice. Lust looked over at the speaker. A light grey greeted his eyes. This was Sloth.

“Do you ever get tired of being lazy my dear Brother?”

The other shrugged at the question a yawn escaping his lips in a lazy manner.

“Can’t get tired of what you always are.”

Lust smirked slyly at this.

“I would know.”

The other blanched.

“Too much information for me there man.”

Lust rolled his eyes and swung his head to look at the others in the room. A pair of children ran forward and tackled him seeing that his conversation with Sloth was over.

“Big Brother Lust, welcome back, Jealousy, Pride, and I missed you!”

“Yeah, welcome back Big Brother Lust!”

Lust stared at the two, his eyes being greeted with green and purple.

“Look at you, you really are kids again. But my, Pride don’t you look handsome, and Envy, you look like a little princess with Jealousy being your maid-in-wait.”

The two kids looked up at Lust with huge smiles, Pride’s eyes aglow at the compliment, Envy hugging Jealousy to her with a glow of contentment in her eyes at getting something she wanted.

“Don’t spoil them too much or they may get big heads. Then who will have to deal with them? Me.”

Lust looked at the one who had spoken. His eyes met a violent, blue light.

“Wrath, need we speak about the tension you are under?”

He asked, teasing the other. Said other scowled.

“We are Brothers, Lust. Don’t even think about it.”

Lust pouted.

“Spoil sport.”

“That’s enough Lust.”

The room grew quiet the suddenness of the one who had been quiet up until now’s voice.

“Of course sir, my apologies…”

Lust looked back to the man who had been with him since he had woken up and found out everything.

"There must be a reason you woke me up again, correct?"

The man merely laughed and nodded then began to pace to the other side of the room.

"Why yes there is a reason. You see we are in dire need of troops, or in this case people like us. Shinra has been after us for a while now, and it would be good to have our numbers as large as they were before. To do that I need all of my major players in play, and you were one of them obviously. I need all of my seven major generals back and you, my dear friend, were one of my more powerful I should say. After all you’re a master manipulation."

"So basically all you need is your pawns back. Is that all we’re good for?”

Lust frowned slightly with his question. The man shrugged.

“Who knows, if we win this battle, you all can play all you want and I won’t stop you.”

The words were colored in promises and the group of people he was addressing shared excited glances, or in the case of sloth, a semi-contented look. The man snapped his fingers, drawing attention to him again.

“Don’t get too excited my lovely Embodiments. I don’t want you to get worked up and then not get what you want. Plus you are not complete yet, so you are not at full power. Also, Envy, my dear, you did a no, no and left the building without permission. You will get your punishment later unless you have a good excuse.”

The man looked at the little girl he was concentrating on with that last statement. The girl’s eyes watered and she looked at Lust with longing in her eyes then at the man once again.

“There was a Turk here! He wanted to take Big Brother Lust away! He was looking for him! He wanted what I wanted! I couldn’t… I didn’t… Big Brother Lust is OURS!”

The force of the protests from the girls caused the words to bounce around the room like a loud speaker. This had the man falling silent, before a look that sent shivers down the Embodiments spines crossed his face.

“There was a Turk sniffing around our headquarters? Do those imbeciles truly believe they can save the one they lost? Or is it that they’re jealous that I’m going to win in the long run? No… They don’t know what my plan… Our plans are….”

He growled before he stormed over to where Lust was and grabbed him by the arm harshly.

“Seems your new body is going to cause us some troubles my dear Lust. I think that when you are not in the machine, I am going to be keeping you very close from now on. Besides… I have very much missed you as my bed partner.”

The man hissed pulling the other to him without much protest from the other, who was much too terrified to fight back. The man then looked towards the others in the room.

“I want all of you to be on the lookout for someone who would be a perfect match for Gluttony. He is the only one of you that I have not been able to revive as of yet.”

He snapped getting quick, silent nods from the rest of the Embodiments. He then turned his attention back to Lust who shivered, in fear instead of anticipation, at the gaze.

“I think we’re going to start our new little arrangement right now.”

He hissed as he then moved to leave the room everyone was in, dragging Lust with him as he went.


	8. New Information = Conflicts to Come

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is the next chapter. Sorry this is so short. The next one to come has a lot more to it.

“You were attacked?”

Tseng asked, eyes narrowed as he watched Rude made his way over to his desk looking disheveled.

“That’s not even the start of it.”

Rude growled tossing his gun onto his desk and flopping into his desk chair.  His hands went to rub over his face, pushing his signature sunglasses up when he decided to rub his eyes instead.

“Well what happened?”

Tseng asked when the other made no move to elaborate.  Elena walked over with a cup of coffee and placed it down on Rude’s desk before walking to stand next to Tseng.  Rude removed his hands from his face and rested them in his lap.

“I got to the place where Reno’s signal went dark, and was going to start looking around when I was stopped by a little girl.”

He started his explanation.  Tseng frowned and crossed his arms over his chest.

“A little girl stopped your investigation?”

He asked seriously, and Rude actually gave him a dark look.

“She wasn’t a normal little girl.”

Tseng’s face turned even darker.

“Continue then.”

Rude nodded, but took a sip of the coffee Elena brought him first.

“When I reached the area and started looking around, this little girl was there.  She was going on about someone named “Lust” and how he was theirs now.  Said we couldn’t take him from them.  She had a teddy bear with her that she started talking to.  She called it…  “Jealousy”?  I think that's correct.  Next thing I know she’s attacking with the teddy bear, which turned into weapon, a sword.  Her skin turned green, and she called herself an Embodiment.  Then this red light started to come from the Inferno building and she was saying something about this “ Big Brother Lust” wanting her back and her wrist lit up in a green light.  She then left after telling me never to return to the scene.”

Rude took another, longer, sip of his coffee.  Tseng’s brows furrowed and he took up a thinking posture.  Elena was looking over at him trying to figure out what was playing through his head.

“Anything else of significance?”

Rude lowered his cup, from yet another sip, to shake his head.

“Nothing else that stood out, Sir.”

He responded, and Tseng’s brows furrowed further.

“Sir…  There is one thing about what Rude told us that stands out though.”

Elena broke in, and both men turned their attention to her.  Elena crossed her arms and looked down.

“You said that the girl was talking about “Big Brother Lust” and that we were going to try and take him from her right?”

She started, and waited for Rude’s nod of confirmation.

“How did she know that we were looking for someone in the area you were in?  Why would she say we were going to take this “Lust” from her?  The only explanation when you put those two points of information together is that they have done something to Reno, and he is now this “Lust” they are talking about.  The fact that she was where he was last, and the fact that she knew you were looking for him are enough to point to that conclusion.”

The two men were silent when she finished speaking, then Tseng let out a long-suffering sigh, and moved to pinch his nose.

“This is not good.  Reno has been compromised.  He could be telling the person in charge of Inferno Shin-Ra secrets.  And we’re not in a position, at the moment, to know what said company knows or not.”

He growled out, before looking up at his remaining Turks.

“Who wants to the President?”

He questioned, and when the two did not answer, he swore in Wutaian.

“President Rufus is not going to be happy about this.”

He groaned, and gave the other Turk’s unamused looks.  After that he turned his attention to the door leading to the Turk offices and steeled himself for what was to come.  No matter if he didn’t want to do it or not, someone had to tell Rufus what was going on, and what was to be expected in the future to come.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading.~ More to come.


	9. Reno

Lust was in the room he had been assigned within the HQ of his little group, on his bed, his head in his hands and a pained expression dancing over his face.  He could hear his vessels actual soul loudly shouting at him, which should not have been possible, and it was causing him a major headache.  He should have taken over completely, repressed the soul within his vessel so completely that they shouldn’t be to be in his head.  Yet here he was, having a headache, wondering what to do to make the voice in his head go away.  And then there was the knocking on his door, which hadn’t stopped in a while.  The person on the other side hadn’t announced themself, which is part of the reason why Lust hadn’t bothered to open the door.

“Big Brother Lust, open the door.”

A voice finally came from the other side of the door with a whine.  And that was all the identification Lust needed to force himself off the bed and over to the door.

“Envy, sweetheart, what can Big Brother do for you?”

Lust asked as he opened the door and looked down at the girl, Envy, who puffed her cheeks out.

“You kept Jealousy and I waiting.”

She pouted, and Lust gave her a charming, apologetic smile.

“Sorry sweetheart.  What did ya need?”

He asked, dropping down to the little girl’s level.  Envy gave him a look, then reached out and put her hand on his cheek.

“You have pain in your eyes.”

She stated and worried look crossed her face, which just looked so wrong on the Embodiments face.  Lust gave her a comforting smile.

“Don’t worry about it.  I guess I’m just not fully settled yet.”

He patted the girl on the head.  Envy narrowed her eyes at him, but let it go.

“Avarice is being a jerk again.  Can you go and make her stop?”

She said instead, getting to what she had come to ask about before.  Lust raised an eyebrow at this, then a sultry look cross his face, and a pout crossed the little girl's face.

“It sucks I got this body.  I would hog you all to myself otherwise.”

She says as Lust stands and stretches.  Lust started to laugh at that, then sent her a look of amusement.

“I can believe that.”

He said, then he moved past the girl and closed the door to his room.

“Don’t get too jealous.  You’re still my favorite.”

He called over his shoulder to the girl as he began to strut down the hallway to where Avarice most likely was.

_ “You guys won’t win!  Once I find a way, I’m taking my body back.  Don’t get too comfortable in it yo!” _

“Yeah, yeah “yo”.  We’ll see about that won’t we?”

Lust shot back to the voice in his head which decided to get louder the further he got from his room.  Then the pounding, that had thankfully gone away around Envy, came back about ten times worse.  Lust bit back a hiss at the fact that the pain decided to center itself right behind his eyes, and he also decided to ignore the fact that there was a whole bunch of smugness coming from the other.

_ “Also, isn't this Avarice chick your sister?” _

The voice was really making Lust want to bang his head on the wall.

“We're not actually siblings. We call each those terms because our Boss wanted me to stop having too much fun back when we first came about. Thought maybe the sibling titles would make things awkward for me. To a certain extent he's right, but once in awhile I like to overlook it.”

Lust decided to answer that question mainly so the other wouldn’t be able to use it again. The other went silent, but the pain behind his eyes increased.  This remaining soul was a bastard and it was starting to greatly annoy Lust, more than it already had been before.  As he was about to turn a corner, a hand reached out and grabbed Lust’s arm effectively startling and stopping the man in his tracks.

“Lust, there you are.  You’re needed at the machine.”

Lust turned his eyes to where the person who had grabbed him was standing.  It was Wrath, standing in his personal room’s doorway.

“Ah shit.  Seriously?  I thought that was later.  I was about to go and take care of something.”

Lust said calmly, almost playfully, but there was a bit of annoyance as well.

“Lust.”

Wrath said his name in just the right way to have the other give a sigh of defeat.

“Got it.  Changing route.”

Lust gave a mock salute with his free arm, and then began to change his destination as Wrath let go of his arm.

_ “Wow.” _

“Don’t start.  Wrath is second in command.  If I were to sass him, I would have him to deal with.”

Lust snapped back at the smugness in the others being.  The pain that seemed to disappear around the other Embodiments came back with a tap dancing feel to it this time.  It was pounding in a rhythm, not just behind his eyes but his ears too.

“You’re a little shit and I hope you know how much I hate you.”

Lust grumbled to himself as he placed a hand to his forehead in hopes of alleviating the pain.

“Trouble with the other soul?”

Lust froze and turned to look behind him.

“Boss.”

He said, hand lowering quickly and giving a little nod of respect, trying to gage the others mood.  The man gave him a raised brow of expectancy.

“He’s not exactly letting himself fade to the background.”

Lust said quickly at the brow raise.

“But he seems to go away around the others…  And you.  I was just heading to the machine.”

He continued when the other didn’t say a word.  And then the man waved him on.

“We’ll discuss this later.  Go to the machine.”

Lust nodded quickly with a quick “sir” and did as he was told.

* * *

To say that Rufus was not happy was an understatement.  And the fact that it was Tseng who ended up having to tell him everything had the Wutaian man more uptight than usual.  The Turks and Rufus were in the latter's office now, looking over the lack of information they had obtained on the Inferno Company.  Said lack of information was making Rufus even more displeased by the second, and it was starting to show on the man’s normally composed face.

“This is truly all we have?”

The blond man asked in a clipped tone usually reserved for official meetings. The tone had all the Turks standing at cautious attention.

“I'm afraid so.”

Tseng said carefully, watching as many things danced behind his president's eyes. The other was in full calculating mode and, that was either an extremely good thing or an extremely bad thing.

“Reno was supposed to be back with more information correct?”

Rufus’ tone stated that it wasn't a question, but a rhetorical statement.

“And then he goes missing in enemy territory. When Rude goes to find him, he is confronted with something called an “Embodiment” and is attacked. This being also kept saying that we were after “Lust”. I'm beginning to see this as a bigger plotline.”

Here the Blond man paused and closed the files in front of him to direct his full attention to his Turks.

“Perhaps they didn't just take Reno because he was about to come back to us with information, but because it seems they needed more men for the front line. If that is the case, Reno has been compromised in someway. However, we all know Reno. I believe we should wait. If he is still alive, his resilience will make itself known. We will gain more information and, since he is on the inside, it will be more than we could have hoped for.”

A dark smile crossed the man's face then, and the Turks shared a look of knowing. They really should learn to trust the fact that the redheaded Turk was unconventional, even if that unconventionality sometimes bit them in the butt.


	10. Reno Pulls Through

“Would you please shut up?! Damn! How the hell did anyone stand you?!”

Lust shouted to the open air of his room, having returned there after being in the machine and getting Avarice to chill. He was gripping onto the hair in front of his forehead, eyes slammed shut due to the assault of badly sung song lyrics. It seemed his vessel's true soul was trying to go a roll of annoying him.

“Good everything shut up!”

_ “Didn't think you went for “good”.” _

Lust opened his eyes to glare at nothing, though he pretended it was the annoyance in his head.

“Saying the word isn't going to make me burst into flames you moron. Now please, shut the ever loving hell up!”

He snapped, and instead was assault with the sound of even more off key humming.

“That accursed sound too!”

Lust shouted. The other just laughed at him, loudly, mockingly.

“How the hell did your friends put up with you?!”

_ “I was too adorable for them to want to murder.” _

The mocking tone that answered Lust had the Embodiment growling.

“You are by far the most annoying vessel I’ve had!”

He snapped and his vessel’s soul decided to laugh louder in response.  He really needed to find a way to fully shut the other up.  He was being a little shit about everything, and it was becoming something that he could not tolerate beyond what he already had.  Right as he was about to grab a bottle of liquor to drive away the other’s voice, there was a knock on the door that had him pause and give a wince as he remembered running into his boss earlier.  Knowing if it was his boss it would be better to open the door immediately, Lust made his way over to the door and pulled it open.  As expected it was his boss, a dark look on his face.  Something had pissed him off.

“Lust, I heard you arguing with Ace the whole way here.”

The man said, and Lust bit his bottom lip.

“Sorry Sir.”

The man raised an eyebrow, the look that said “I’m not appeased” making itself at home on his face.

“Perhaps you should spend some time with me tonight.”

The man’s voice was cold, and Lust had to hold himself back from flinching.

“Is that what you want Sir?”

He asked, voice holding his anxiouosness.  The other man gave him a smug look, and a dark chuckle made its way out of his mouth.

“What do you think?  Did you think I would say that without a meaning to it?”

Lust straightened up to his full height and gulped.

“Of course.”

He said quickly, his feet guiding him out on autopilot as the other man took a few steps back.

* * *

Tseng stared at his computer with narrowed eyes, his fingers laced in front of his frown thinned mouth.  His office was dark, having decided to get some work done even at this late hour.  There was just so much that he wanted to figure out about this whole thing.  He had actually started to type out a detailed explanation of what had happened up until this point as a way of trying to put pieces together.  There was always something he was missing though.  There were gaps that he had no information to fill in.

“Tseng…  Maybe you should go get some sleep.”

Elena’s voice entered into his mind from the side, making the man jump and reach for his gun on reflex.  He thankfully stopped himself, berating himself at the fact that the other was able to sneak up on him and make him revert to autopilot.

“Elena…  How long have you been there?”

He asked looking over at the women who was staring at him in worry.

“You asked me to get you some coffee about fifteen minutes ago.  I just got back.”

She responded, and that made Tseng give an internal groan at himself.

“I see.”

He responded, finally noticing the coffee cup that was on his desk, full of the liquid energy he had requested.

“I really think you should go get some sleep. Everything will be here in the morning.”

Elena tried to persuade as the man reached for the cup of coffee finally. Tseng sighed and shook his head.

“I would love to Elena. I thank you for the concern, but if I sleep now, I'll wake up feeling like I have done nothing.”

The man muttered, and Elena gave a huff.

“Tseng, you're going formal on me.”

Tseng looked up at her and blinked, then sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Sorry. I guess everything is just getting to me.”

He apologized, and Elena moved to pat him on the shoulder, then began rubbing circles on his shoulder blade.

“I know.”

She assured him. Tseng was about to say something more, when his computer gave a ding. The two’s attention shifted to the device and their eyes went wide. It was an email, but the subject was in a familiar code Reno loved to use as a way to torture his co-workers, or hide messages.

“That boy is going to be the death of me.”

Tseng laughed a little as he read the subject.

“Looks like we're getting our information after all.”

* * *

Reno grimaced as he stood up from the bed his body had been dragged too. He looked over at the other person in it before giving them the finger with a cheeky grin. (Who knew the ass in charge of this place was a cuddler?) This was an unexpected, but welcomed, opportunity that he absolutely could not let go.

Lust had fallen asleep, after their boss had decided to make the other sleep in the same bed as him. (At least it wasn't like the last time the other had been brought here…) Reno must have mentally exhausted him because the next thing Reno knew, he was back in control of his body and damn proud of himself for finding this little gem of information out.

Now he had to work quick. Off to the side of the room was a too well placed computer and Reno felt as though something was deciding to be kind to him. He snuck his way over to the device and turned it on with ease. A little hacking later and he had opened up a server that he could hide on the computer for his future use. Now came the part he needed to do in order to alert the other Turks and Shin-ra about what was happening. His hands and fingers moved quickly, opening up a link only Turks knew about and typing what would look like the ramblings of a mad man into an email. The send button was soon to be clicked after and then the man worked fast to shut everything down as quickly as he had brought it up. Behind him he could hear rustling, something that was setting his nerves alight with panic.

Making his way in a crouch over to the bathroom door, he went into the room and then stood, making it look like he was just coming out of the room in just enough time to see bright red eyes open and move to look at him.

“Lust, what are you doing?”

The man’s voice was deeper with sleep, and Reno bit back the urge to gulp as the eyes looked him over like he knew something was wrong.

“Woke up because I was too hot, couldn't immediately go back to sleep. Decided to splash some water on my face and cool down.”

Reno responded, remembering to look sheepish and try to copy mannerisms he had felt his body do while in the control of Lust. The man on the bed gave a hum in response and then moved an arm out from under the covers and used his hand to gesture for Reno to come back to the bed. Reno did as the other bid him to do in order to keep up appearances. As soon as he was under the covers, the man grabbed him and pulled him close, his mouth resting uncomfortably close to his ear.

“If I find you've lied to me, there will be punishment. Now sleep.”

He growled, and Reno fought the urge to stiffen. The man was already asleep next to him, and Reno actually felt himself feeling sorry for Lust. Not that he would ever think it where the Embodiment could hear it.


	11. AVALANCHE Makes an Entrance and Lust Makes Some Changes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter is late.
> 
> I had a family emergency, then things just kept piling up...
> 
> I hope this chapter is okay.
> 
> Thank you to CresentMoon for putting an interesting plot thought in my head.

Rude reread the email that had been sent from Reno’s account at least three times.  He had highlighted Envy’s name and made a note about what he knew about the little girl next to it.  Now he was reading the rest of the names over and over again, trying to remember if he had heard them anywhere when he was out and about.  He was drawing a blank though, there was just no recollection he could come up with.  Perhaps the others never left the building unless they had something they needed to take care of for their leader?  That would make sense in a way, them keeping their forces under wraps so that there was an element of surprise for attacking enemies.  Even though Reno had been able to get them this information, there was not much that could be done with it for the moment without more to supplement it.

“Figure anything else out Rude?”

Elena asked as she entered into the others office with a cup of coffee in her hand for him.  Rude looked up at his fellow Turk and sighed, shaking his head.

“Not a damn thing.  Reno probably only put the bare minimum so that he wouldn’t get caught.”

He responded, nodding his thanks as he took the cup from the woman’s outstretched hand once she was close enough for him to do so.  Elena frowned at that, worry dancing in her eyes as she mulled over the words that were hanging heavily in the air between the two.

“Maybe he will get more information to us soon?  You might be right and this was all he could afford to send in the situation he was in at the moment.”

She finally said, tone holding hope in it.  Rude didn’t want to break that hope.

“You might be right.  He might send more tonight for all we know.  He’s unpredictable.”

He agreed, and Elena’s face lit up.  Rude hoped that they were right just so she wouldn’t look downtrodden again.  Even Tseng was starting to get unnerved by his girlfriend’s less than peppy mood.  For all the annoyance she showed towards Reno, there was obviously a sibling relationship that had started between the two that seemed to grow the more years they worked together.  When Reno actually gave Tseng the shovel talk, that was when it was confirmed you did not mess with one or the other without making the other react.  But he digressed.

“What do you think we need to do now?  You know…  While we wait?”

Elena asked, her attention on the annotation that Rude added to the information Reno had sent.

“Well…  Rufus sent me some orders that I’m going to be carrying out soon.  I don’t think he would care if you come.  Unless you have orders as well?”

Rude watched as Elena shook her head.

“I don’t have any.  What were your orders?”

She asked watching as Rude sighed.

“I have to go talk to Cloud.”

“Isn’t it a little too soon for that?”

Elena asked as soon as Rude had finished his comment. Rude shrugged and looked at his computer screen again.

“Maybe not. Maybe we do need him and his friends to deal with whatever is going on. This seems like another one of those groups that always end up dragging in AVALANCHE anyways.”

He said calmly, though he watched Elena biting her lip out of the corner of his eyes.

“Those seem to just keep popping up no matter what state the world is in.”

She muttered, then she sighed.

“Let me get my stuff together.”

She said, to which Rude nodded, and left the office.

* * *

“Shut the everloving, fiery eternity up!”

Lust shouted to the open area of the Machine room. As always, Reno had decided to begin bugging him. It was to the point that the other seemed to have removed the “mute” and “off” mental switches, thus making it impossible to make him shut up.

_ “What? You don't like my taste in music?” _

Lust growled and sent the mental image of knives to his host’s soul.

_ “Touchy. Touchy.” _

“I'll show you touchy, you dumbfuck.”

Lust listened to the boisterous that followed his comment with the patience of a non-existent snake.

“You know what… Keep laughing. I'm going to have fun with you if you give me a reason.”

He sneered, which caused the other to stop laughing, but curiosity rang inside his thoughts. This cause Lust to smirk.

“Finally got your attention?”

He asked coyly.

_ “What are you planning?” _

Reno actually sounded apprehensive.

“Maybe if I embarrass the shit out of you, you'll be quiet more often.”

Lust responded cooly back, looking towards the rooms door as it opened.

“Lust, Ace still giving you a problem?”

Wrath asked, eyebrow crooked in amusement. Lust gave him a flirty smile.

“Not for much longer. Hun, would you be a dear and ask the boss if I can get a new look? Love the body, but the feel seems wrong.”

Wrath’s eyes widened momentarily before they closed to add to his amused laugh.

“Now that's cruel.”

Even his tone was amused when he spoke.  Lust gave him a smug look.

“It may be cruel, but it might shut him up.  Besides, I like being able to switch between the two.  I like not be constrained.”

Wrath nodded at this, knowing well that this was something that happened at least once with each vessel switch.

“Of course.  I’ll let the boss know.  He’ll get back to you at his own time though.”

He agreed, then he waved his hand towards the door.

“You’re free to go back to your room now.”

He added, and Lust gave him a cheerful smile.

“Thank you.  I’ll be in my room if you need me.”

He said, moving to leave the room as he was being prompted to do.

“Does Ace know what’s to come?”

Wrath asked before Lust was fully out the door.

“Even if he did, he has no way of stopping it.”

Lust responded, then he was out the door.

* * *

7th Heaven was as busy as usual, maybe a little bit more so, when Rude and Elena entered through the front door.  Patrons close by moved away from the two of them with suspicious looks, but made no move to attack them since the people of AVALANCHE had recently worked with them, making it clear that there was a truce.  The two Turks moved towards the bar where they were hoping Tifa would be working, since there were times when the woman was on break when they arrived at the bar.  The brunette was behind the bar, thankfully, and busy by the looks of it as she danced her way around behind the bar, pouring drinks and passing them out.  Her movements faltered briefly as she noticed Rude and Elena approaching, but she quickly picked back up the slack and nodded her head towards one of the back booths where Cloud was probably located.

“Looks like we have to go straight for the hero….”

Elena muttered to Rude, who nodded both as thanks to Tifa, and agreement to Elena’s comment.

“Seems so.”

He said with a bit back sigh.  He really didn’t want to deal with Cloud first, but it seemed that was going to be the way things were going to be.  So, with an air of authority, Rude moved through the crowd towards the back, Elena following behind his imposing figure since the crowd parted around him.  Sure enough, at one of the booths, Cloud was located at the back of the bar, eyes glancing over the crowd like a big cat watching a prey animal.  When the blond’s eyes landed on Rude and Elena, they narrowed and he took a giant swig of the drink he had been holding onto.

“Good evening Cloud.”

Rude greeted as soon as he was close to the blond.  The blond gave a grunt in response, then gestured towards the booth seat across from him.  The two Turks took a seat.

“What brings you here.”

Cloud asked as soon as they were fully seated, not wanting to beat around the bush.

“Reno is missing.”

Rude retorted immediately.

“And?  What does that have to do with me?”

“The Inferno Company has something to do with it.”

Cloud raised an eyebrow at that and scoffed.

“Are you sure you aren’t using that company as an excuse?  That you aren’t just upset because of competition moving in?”

Rude lowered his glasses to show his eyes narrowing to the blond.

“Am I supposed to be intimidated by that?”

The blond asked in response to the gesture, his eyes rolling.

“Cloud, Reno has been missing since he was sent to gather information of the Inferno Company.  He only sent us one email with information about what he has learned, and it was after he had been missing for a good while.  An email, not giving the report in person.”

Elena said, stressing the last bit.  Cloud frowned at that and his eyes narrowing this time.

“Was he supposed to be undercover?”

He asked, and immediately he got to head shakes.

“He was supposed to meet someone who was going to give him the information.  I got a call from him the day he went missing.  I was going to be picking him up from a situation where he was running away from people chasing him.  He was injured.”

Rude informed the blond, knowing that there was finally a spark of interest in the other about the situation.  Cloud took a breath sharply, then released it slowly.

“Should have started with that information.”

He growled out.

“Give me more information.”

“We can show you at the office.  I don’t want to tell you here.  No clue if there are hidden ears or not.”

Rude responded.  Cloud stared at him and Elena for a moment unblinking, then he gave a sharp nod.

“Fine.  Let’s go now.  I don’t think I’m needed here anyways.  Let me tell Tifa where I’m going so she can meet us at your building.”

He responded, moving to stand.  Rude and Elena began to stand as well.

* * *

“Is this what you wanted?”

Lust’s boss asked, looking over the other in front of him, who in turn was looking at herself in the mirror.

“This is perfect.”

Lust responded with a sultry look towards the other from her reflection.

“I must say, I was shocked you wanted me to do this.  I thought you liked the way your host’s body was.”

Lust hummed at the comment, and shrugged.

“I did.”

She turned to look at her back.

“But I wanted Ren-... Ace... to shut up.  I think this body looks even better as a woman.”

Lust’s boss gave a hum of approval.

“I must agree.  Pronouns, my dear?”

“She/Her is fine.  I don’t think They/Them feels right this time around.”

Lust responded easily to the question, a finger resting on her lips from her quick contemplation.  Her boss nodded just as easily.

“Of course.”

_

A few moments later Lust returned back to her room and proceeded to get ready to take a shower before getting ready for bed.

_ “...” _

Reno finally reappeared into Lust and his shared mind space.

“Wow.  Actual silence.  Didn’t know you would look like this as a woman?”

_ “...” _

“Don’t worry sweetheart.  You behave and I might go back to being male, depending on how I feel the day I feel you’ve been punished enough.  But you have to listen to everything I say.”

_ “...” _

“You know…  I like you so much better this way.”

Lust commented with satisfaction.

“In fact, it’s extremely nice to not hear you as a raving fool.”

_ “When my friends come to save me…  I’m sure that someone can reverse this….” _

Reno finally responded this only made Lust shrug.

“Well, they wouldn’t need to, this isn’t a permanent thing.  Boss man has to reapply this every two weeks or this body goes back to being male.”

_ “So this is just…  Magic?” _

Lust hummed out a “mhmm” and stretched as she made her way to the bathroom.

“You win.”

She gave a fake cheer to go along with the words.

“And I really do hope you’ll use the right pronouns.  You heard them right?”

Reno didn’t answer, but there was a feeling that said he knew what Lust was talking about.  This brought a grin to Lust’s face.

“At least that’s something I won’t have to worry about with you.  Must know how to acknowledge someone who is genderfluid because of your life in Sector 7.  Am I right?”

_ “Yeah.” _

Reno responded, and Lust gave a happy hum again, stepping into her shower.

“Then let’s both make the best of this.  Remember, do what I say and we might be able to reach an agreement.”

She said cheerfully, then she pushed the mental mute button that seemed to have appeared, and turned on the hot water to start her shower.


	12. More Information Given/Meeting Takes Place

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the support everyone!~

It was late into the night when Reno was able to regain control over his body.  Even with the magic in place it still felt like his body, and he actually had to admit he did look good as a woman.  Though he digressed.  Making his way over to Lust’s untouched laptop, he opened the device and hacked into it after waiting for it slowly turn itself on.  It took a while, but he was able to find the code he had input and then pull up his interface.  Now what the hell should he send to the others now?  He didn’t know how long he had until Lust retook control.  He figured they may actually be okay with a general update on his being, and that there was magic (without Materia) being used.

Taking a moment, he then pulled up the email app.  He typed out a few things like the blase “I’m fine” and “Not much has happened since the last email” before jumping into the rest of the information he wanted to give them.  He typed out a long paragraph over the magic usage and a theory about how it worked.  He typed that it wasn’t a Materia that was used, but literal particles in gas…  Or something of the sort?  He typed about how he was currently female in body, Lust in body and mind, and how he was still male in mind.  Then he typed out more things about the people who were around him.  After he was done, he read it over then clicked the send button.

Right as he was about to log off the interface, he suddenly saw black around the edges of his vision and began to panic.  Was this the sign that Lust was waking up?  He wasn’t logged off yet!  Quickly he finished the logoff sequence, all the while hoping he could beat the clock, then began to move quickly over to the bed to try and get himself arranged in a way Lust would not suspect he had gotten control.  Luckily for him, as soon as his head hit the pillow, his vision went full out black, and he felt himself slipping back into the back of his mind.  A few moments later, Lust opened her eyes and raised her arms above her head to stretch out her back.

_ “Sleep well?” _

Lust gave a sigh and then a hum.

“You’re being pleasant this morning.  That wasn’t annoying.”

She commented sleepily standing up from her bed to stretch the rest of her body.

_ “I always treat ladies right.” _

Lust snorted at that comment and rolled her eyes as she began to look around her room, looking to see if her boss had delivered clothes in the night.  He hadn’t.  She sighed at first, then stopped her eyes on her laptop with a frown on her face.  She was sure it had been closed when she had gone to bed.

“Maybe I sleep walked?”

She muttered to herself, ignoring the odd silence that was coming from Reno.  She then moved over to the wardrobe and began to grab around in it for the clothes she was going to wear for the day.  After she had grabbed everything, she moved over to her laptop and slammed the device closed gently, then moved to her bathroom to get ready for the day.  She had a date with the machine, then she wasn’t sure what the rest of the day was going to be like.  Maybe she could get a rise out of Sloth today.  She always did love messing with him when she had the chance.

* * *

Rude, Tseng, and Elena stood outside of Rufus’ office cringing every once in awhile when one voice or another was loud enough to hear from outside the four walls of the room.  They had offed to stay, but Rufus had decided that he wanted to try and talk to Cloud alone.  Though this didn't seem ideal, this was what they allowed of their boss.  The two had been taking… Yelling…  Conversing loudly…  Whatever one wanted to call it…  For about two hours now.  There was no reason, in Rude’s eyes, that it should be taking as long as it has been.

Tseng had pulled out one of the new hand-held computers that were being tested by their tech. department, scrolling through things in his inbox, his eyes glancing towards the door every few minutes, other senses alert in case of quick needed action.  That seemed to come to a halt though as his hand froze above the computer's screen.  Elena, who was right next to him, glanced at him in concern.

“Tseng?”

Tseng didn't respond at first, then he was making his hand swiftly knock on the door to Rufus’ office.

“What?!”

Rufus’ voice snapped alongside Cloud’s in response to the interruption.

“Reno sent another message Sir!”

Tseng responded back instantly. There was a pause on the other side of the door.

“Come in!”

Rufus called out then.  Tseng in an instant had the door handle in his hand and was turning it.  Not wanting to be left out of the loop, Elena and Rude followed his purposeful gait.  Cloud and Rufus were standing with only the desk in between them, Cloud with his arms crossed over his chest, Rufus shoving his hair back into a more kempt look as the three approached.

“Here Sir.”

Tseng said, handing over the computer when he was close enough. Rufus took the device and clicked on the email that came from the familiar email address.  He was silent, reading the contents intensely, then he actually went back and read it again both his eyebrows raised in a questioning manner.  He then held the device out to Cloud.

“Read this.”

He said simply.  Cloud gave the device a distrustful look, but took it nonetheless.  The message was clearly scrolled to the bottom so Cloud could read the prior message.  Cloud read the email, the scrolled up to see more of it.  He paused halfway through, his eyes leaving the computer to look at Rufus square in the eyes.

“Well Fuck.”

He said and Rufus nodded in agreement.

“Well fuck.”

He repeated back.  The three Turks could only watch the scene in confusion.


	13. Team Meetings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short... So short... I'm so sorry >.<

Tension was almost tastable within the room, split currently in half by an invisible line.  Though there were some better relations between the two groups, that didn’t mean that they liked to be near one another for longer than necessary.  They had been through having to fight Kadaj and his brothers, and many other crises since then as well, but that didn’t mean they were finally in good standing with one another, no matter the differences being shown in the Shin-Ra corporation.  So now that they were being called to go and save a member of the Turks from a place that seemed to be doing so well for the public…  Well some weren’t convinced that this wasn’t an attempt to overthrow competition.

“You say the email was from Reno, but you don’t have a full amount of proof right?”

It was Yuffie that was asking this for at least the third or fourth time in a span of thirty minutes.  It wasn’t like the other’s didn’t want to ask the same thing, but most of them saw Yuffie’s asking as enough.  Cloud was fighting the urge to rub his temples.

“How many times do I have to tell you Yuffie?  This is not a ruse.  I went to the alleyway Rude fought that girl in.  The place is still trashed in the exact way he described it.  There is no way a Materia could have caused the damage the way it was done.  Reno hasn’t come back yet, and he was not set to go on an undercover mission.  Think about it.  If this is a ruse, why would Shinra call me in?  You know we don’t get along all that well.”

Yuffie gave a huffed sigh, crossing her arms in front of her chest at the answer.

“It’s not that we doubt ya Cloud, it’s just that Reno is a tough Son of a Bitch.  That’s why we can’t grasp it like ya do.”

Cid chimed in from where he was leaning against one of the walls.

“So glad all of you think we’re so petty.”

Rufus seemed to snarl, though it was hidden behind his Pomp and Circumstance.

“Well aren’t you?  You always pull shit like this and we end up being dragged in!”

Barrett snarled right back from his place next to Cid.

“Can we not fight?  Seriously, maybe this is really a serious thing.”

Tifa, bless her, tried to play peacemaker.

“I might not like it as much as you all, but I know Reno.  This is nothing like him.  He said the last time I saw him he would be back to Seventh after he was done with a big job.  He hasn’t come back.  That man never turns up a chance for a drink.”

Barrett huffed out another growl, but he seemed to at least put on a blank face of tolerance.

“Tifa’s right.  Reno told me that we would get a drink at Seventh when he got back.  He and I have never called off a drink night unless he’s taken out of commission.”

Rude chimed in, hoping it would show how serious the situation was.

“He also never misses a check in.”

Tseng added, though he seemed semi-reluctant to admit that there was a tad of pride for the other.

“And he wouldn’t miss a chance to try and prank me as soon as he got back.”

Elena also added, trying to force the others to take this seriously in her own way.

“Perhaps we should check this out.  If we don’t they are sure to continue to ask us to until we do.  They seem serious enough.  I don’t like it.  However, something about the place in question has made me uneasy as of late.”

Vincent, who had been quiet up until now, finally said from the dark corner of the room he had taken up residence in.  With his words came a sense of relief from the side of the room that the Shin-Ra group were on.  The AVALANCHE side seemed to freeze at the others words, seeming to take them in and process them.

“Well…  Shit.  Looks like we’re in.  At least I’m in.”

Cid said after a while, his hands reaching for where his cigarettes were.

“If Vinnie is feeling uneasy…  I guess that means there is something to it.”

Yuffie agreed, and with her agreement seemed to come the reluctant one of Barrett who looked like he had taken a bite out of one of the most bitter foods life had to offer.  Following his agreement was Tifa, who merely sighed in relief.

* * *

Lust shifted the robe she was wearing around to sit better on her form, her face showing a pleased grin that seemed to only want to make itself known when there was chaos to be done.

_ “What’s with the robe?” _

Reno had seemed to be more talkative today as well, his voice asking the same question like a broken record.

“Honey, could you shut up?  I’m in a fantastic mood and I don’t want you ruining it with your constant nagging.”

She said, a hum following the words as she began to put on make-up.  Reno really didn’t like that response, it being the only one he had gotten all day.

_ “What are you about to do with my body?!” _

Lust growled as the man in her mind shouted the demanding question at her.

“Did you not hear me?  Shut.  Up.  You.  Shit!”

She snarled, her tone losing all peasantry it could hold.  There was a bout of silence after that as she finished putting on her make-up and turned to leave her room.  She flounced out the door to her room, slamming the door behind her, and stormed down the hall with huff.

“Getting annoyed with the voice in your head?”

Lust jumped when the voice of Sloth seemed to just appear behind her.

“Sweetie, you have no idea.  I need a distraction.  Bossman could not have chosen a better time to call this meeting.”

She responded, looking over at the other and noticing he had his hood pulled up already.

“Love the mysterious look on you.  Wanna be my distraction tonight?”

She cooed, and Sloth seemed to sag at the question.

“You’re my sister.”

He stressed with a groan.

“And we both know that’s a lie so we don’t mess around too much.”

Lust rolled her eyes and grabbed at his hand in one of hers to drag him towards the meeting room.

“Well, we can at least go and get this over with.”

She sighed, pulling her hood up with her free hand.  Sloth seemed to straighten up at that and even seemed to sigh in relief.

“Sometimes it sucks being one of the responsible ones…  And I’m one of the one’s who hates responsibility.  Thankfully you’re being that person right now.”

He groaned as he let himself be dragged down the hall with barely any effort needed from the other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... Sadly I'm going on temp hiatus for this fic until I have a few more chapters written. Once I feel caught up, then I'll be back.
> 
> My life has just been so busy that finding time to write is hard. I want to be able to feel confident in a posting schedule before I even try to keep one. That said, I'll feel better when I have more than one chapter ready to go at any given time before I start posting again.


	14. With the Embodiments

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back!
> 
> It took awhile but I’m back! I’m thinking about going back to the once a month posting schedule. I feel comfortable that I’ll be able to meet it this time!
> 
> That being said, here is the next chapter!

The room was dark except for the multiple fireplaces that cast shadows on the walls with their fading flames.  Sitting on the couches and chairs around the room were the cloaked figures of the Embodiments. Lust, who had been close to the first of the group to get to the room, found herself leaning her top half against Avarice, who was grumbling about the situation, but not making any move to move her.  Holding her legs in their lap was Sloth, who had his head thrown back, slightly dozing. Snuggling into her stomach was Envy, who was in a cuddly mood, despite the atmosphere of the room. Wrath had taken to standing near the door in order to wait for the arrival of their boss, Pride copying him, much to the older male’s annoyance.

“So glad that everyone could make it.”

The voice of the man everyone had been waiting for finally sounded through the room, causing both Wrath and Pride to stand up straight and bow at the door.  Envy popped up from her cuddling to stare at the door and tilted her head, her arms tightening on Jealousy as she moved to get off of Lust. Lust, not wanting to move groaned, but she too moved so that she was sitting up properly.  The man then fully entered the room and moved towards the front area near the main fireplace. Now Wrath and Pride moved to join the others in the sitting area, pausing only as they saw a woman they didn’t know enter the room. Said woman paused as well, her eyes narrowing on the two.

“What?  Can’t recognize me?  You all suck. Why was I last?  Is it because of food bills?”

The woman asked, crossing her arms over her chest.  It was Lust who cut off anything that Wrath could say, by jumping off the couch with a squeal.

“Glutty~.”

She chirped as she flounced over to the woman and pulled her into a hug.

“Lusty~.”

The woman returned the hug.  This made Wrath growl slightly and Pride blanch playfully.  Before anything more could be exchanged between the two females, their boss cleared his throat.

“Ladies, your reunion can wait.  We have much to discuss about starting the main portion of our plan.”

He said, voice cold and knocking off all nonsense that may have continued had he not said anything.

_ “Yeah, shut up.  I want to know what you’re about to do with my body!” _

Reno chimed in from inside Lust’s mind, making the woman send him an internal glare.

“We have someone trying to tag along.”

She huffed out loud, making Reno squawk indignantly from inside her mind and making her feel smug in the process when her boss turned towards her.

“He seems to be the worst host you have yet in terms of giving up full control.”

The man walked over to Lust then from where he had been and pulled the woman to him, his mouth going to her ear.

“Silence”

He hissed into the appendage, and Reno’s voice cut out immediately within her mind.

“Sleep”

And then his presence followed.  Lust gave a happy sigh at the silence that echoed in her mind.

“Thanks boss man.”

She chirped, mood brightened by the lack of Reno’s interruptions in her thoughts.

“You’re welcome.  Now sit. I have much we need to discuss.”

The man said firmly, tone dangerous.  Even though he had helped, it was clear that he was annoyed with Reno’s interruption as well.  Lust gulped and nodded as the man backed away from her and made to return to where he had originally been standing before.

* * *

“So, let me get this straight…  That place right there is where Rude had his major battle with what he called an Embodiment?”

Yuffie asked, staring at the crater that still had yet to be fixed in the alleyway.

“That is some serious power….”

Barrett added, his eyes narrowed at the spot in contemplation.  It was clear that seeing this had helped his opinion (possibly) on the mission they had taken on beside the Turks.

“Why did you bring us here anyways Cloud?”

Tifa asked, getting to the important question.  Cloud pointed to the building that was important to the mission.

“That is the Inferno Electrical Company building.”

The rest of the group looked towards the building.  Vincent’s expression turned dark.

“That place…  Something about it is making Chaos restless.”

He said, and that caught the rest of the group’s attention in away that was much more powerful than a crater in the ground.  When Chaos became involved in anything… Things were going to get serious.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See you when I see you!


	15. Enter Inferno

Getting into the building was actually easier than the members of AVALANCHE had thought it would be.  There had been no one in the reception area to greet them, nor were there guards or security. This was another thing that seemed to undeniably back up what Shinra had claimed.  Why would a building that deals with energy not have security when it could be a target for terrorists? And then there was the atmosphere of the place. The air just felt off, almost too thick to breathe, and it was warmer than what normal air conditioning could produce.

“I don’t like this.”

Cloud said, glancing around the area they had moved towards.

“Chaos is stirring more the closer we get towards that tunnel.”

Vincent added, pointing towards the tunnel off to the left of the group.

“Any reason you think?”

Yuffie asked, looking over at the man with a worried look.  Vincent kept his eyes forward.

“None that I can say, unless there is demonic energy nearby.”

This made the rest of the group tense.

“Well would you look at this.  There are mice in the pantry.”

The group tensed even further and looked around, the voice’s sudden insertion throwing them for a loop in the empty area.

“It came from there.”

Cid finally said, pointing out where the intercom they hadn’t noticed before was.

“Clever.  Good for you, you can find a speaker.”

The voice taunted back, a hint of a smirk in it.

“What do you want?”

Tifa called out, giving a glare towards the system, targeting her glare towards where she saw a red light.

“No, the question is what do you want.  You broke in here.”

“We’re looking for someone.”

Cloud responded, getting glances from everyone.  The voice hummed.

“Oh really?  Who would you be looking for?”

The voice asked in interest.

“A fuckin’ Turk.”

Barrett answered, and then there was a laugh from the voice.

“Ah yes.  We have one of those.  She doesn’t want to talk to you.  But I know two someone elses who do.”

“And that would be us.”

AVALANCHE turned around to face the two children who were now in the hallway.

“Why does everyone want to take Big Sister away?”

The little girl asked, hugging her teddy bear to her while she looked at the boy with her.

“Because they want to take what you hold so dear.”

The boy responded, a glare centered on the group.

“I won’t let them!”

The little girl held her teddy bear out then.

“Jealousy, let’s get’em!”

She shouted, and then the there was a scythe in her hands instead of the bear.

“I’m gonna make sure I kill you!  I messed up with the other jerk!”

She snarled, while the boy held his hands out and a giant war hammer (that should not have been easy to hold by a tiny child) appeared in his hands.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa.  Calm down sweethearts.  I changed my mind. I wanna talk to them before you cause damage.”

A new almost familiar voice entered the area, as did an almost familiar figure.  The little children both moved closer to the speaker, giving them their own concerned looks.  Cloud tensed at the appearance of the woman, and Tifa seemed to come to see the same conclusion.

“Reno?”

The woman scoffed and crossed her arms over her chest.

“Well, I never expected Shin-Ra to send AVALANCHE to try and get my host back.  What did they promise you this time?”

She asked, not even bothering to answer to the name said.  The rest of AVALANCHE tensed now as well.

“Nothing.  But they gave us a warning.  And we had evidence come to us from an anonymous source.”

The woman laughed though the tone was annoyed and dark.

“Oh my…  Guess I should have known Reno was being too complacent.  Son of Gun found a way to be annoying. Should probably let the boss know.  Damn… I am in  _ so _ much trouble.”

She covered half her face with a hand and sighed.

“I know it isn’t your fault though Big Sister Lust!  I’ll vouch for you!”

The little girl said, joining the conversation.  The woman smiled at her.

“Thanks sweet.”

She said, then she turned her attention back to the group.

“You’re too late to save the man you came for.  He’s mine now. Sorry, I don’t feel like giving him back.  I kinda need him to be.”

She said, placing a hand in the center of her chest, then pulling it forward with the hand closed.  Out of her chest came what looked to be a spear. Then she paused, the spear only have way out of her chest, as a gun found it’s way to the back of her head.

“What are you?  And where is the Turk Reno?”

The woman rolled her eyes as the little girl and little boy turned to the man who had spoken.

“Stand down Envy, Pride.  The man is an idiot if he uses that thing.”

She said easily, her hand then going to continue to pull the spear out as she spoke.

“We here are called Embodiments.  You remember that whole thing with Pandora?  You can thank her for the existence of us… If you believe the myth.  But then again, you could also blame a human for our creation, and then for our subsequent ability to be our own beings.  There was once this worlds own personal Pandora. He created and worked on many evils. Some he forgot, and those became us.  Say thanks to a man named Hojo.”

Then she glanced at the man behind her from the corner of her eye.

“You have something to thank him for too…  Don’t you? Vincent Valentine?”

Vincent’s expression darkened, and the woman turned so that his gun was in front of her face.

“Go ahead.  Shoot me with Cerberus.  You’ll be killing Reno. He’s currently here -she tapped her forehead with the index finger on her free hand- yelling at you, hoping to take control.  Hoping to pass on everything he knows. Now knowing that he can somehow take control over this body we share… I’m going to have to try a little harder to make sure he gets locked away in the darkest part of his mind possible.  Maybe trap him in memories of his past? That would be fun.”

The words of the woman only served to make Cloud angry, and draw his sword, pointing in towards the woman as well.  The reaction was instantaneous, and he had the little girl’s scythe placed directly against his blade.

“Don’t you dare.”

The girl hissed, in a way that no child should be able to do.  The rest of AVALANCHE pulled out their weapons, or got into fighting stances.  This had the little boy appearing in front of the group as well, his war hammer raised up in a defensive manner.

“You’re not allowed to play by your rules.  You’re in our house. You play by our rules.”

He said, and then there was the sound of something coming towards the group from behind.


	16. The Call

There was something wrong.  Rude just knew there was something wrong.  A part of his mind had been screaming at him ever since the AVALANCHE group had left.  The feeling just couldn’t be confirmed or denied however. How could he confirm it when the Turks had not been given permission to move yet.  AVALANCHE was to inform them soon of what they have found in the den of the enemy. It shouldn’t have been so hard for them to get in and out.  There should be an alert soon…. As though to answer his thoughts, Rude’s cell phone started to go off just then. Rufus and the others looked at him as he pulled out said phone and hit the answer button.

“Hello?”

He asked, waiting as the other line seemed to stay in silence.

“Rude?  Buddy? What the hell are you doing send AVALANCHE in on my mission?”

The voice on the other line finally said.  Rude’s eyes immediately narrowed behind his sunglasses and he put his phone on speaker.

“Reno?  You were supposed to have reported back by now.”

“I got a little caught up.  It’s fine now though. Me and AVALANCHE will be making our way-....”

“Who are you really?”

Rude interrupted the other causing another pause on the other side of the line.  Then there was a giggle of sorts.

“Oh man…  Seriously…?  What gave it away?”

The voice on the other side of the line finally asked, as another jumped in.

“Not slick enough, missing the catchphrase I know I told you.  You sound tired as usual.”

“Got off my back Sis.”

“Well, you’re out of practice because that was a shit performance if you could get called out by the guys partner.”

“Excuse me, but I asked a question.”

Rude jumped into the argument that had suddenly started on the other line, his voice cold.  Tseng and Elena tensed at how clear it was that the normally even-tempered man was losing his patience.

“Right, right.  Sis, should I leave the explaining to you?”

“I guess, if I must.”

The other voice said, sounding closer now.

“Hello, this is the ever lovable Lust here.  You were speaking to Sloth, but he got bored of dealing with you.”

Rude and everyone else in the room tensed.

“If that’s the case…  Let me talk to Reno.”

* * *

“Don’t even ask after their AVALANCHE buddies first.  Sort of tacky don’t you think?”

Gluttony asked, taking a bite out of the apple in her hand.  Besides her, Wrath crossed his arms and scoffed.

“What do you expect from a company bathed in more blood than we’ve ever been?”

He asked, with a dark grin on his face.

“Well…  Yet.”

Lust, who was listening to this, held the phone a distance away from her giving it a contemplative look.

“Envy, hun, can you hold this for me for a moment?”

She asked, handing the phone over to said girl who took it and blew a raspberry into it.  Pride, who was next to her, pulled the phone to him briefly and did the same. The woman gave a snicker at this as she turned to where they had AVALANCHE held, chained up to the wall, all beaten up in some form or fashion.

“Should we send them a message for asking dumb questions?”

She asked, picking up her spear and Cid’s.

“Don’t touch the man with the gun arm.  I’m having fun with him.”

Avarice said from where she was standing, playing with her knives.

“You’re crazy!”

Barrett snapped back, knowing he was the target she was talking about.  Avarice tossed the knife she was holding, hitting said man in the shoulder.  Barrett bit back a shout.

“I’m not crazy.  I just want what we’re owed.  And this world owes us much.”

She snapped harshly.  Lust sighed and walked over the Avarice and, moving to hold both spears in one hand, stroked her cheek gently.

“Avy.  Calm down sweetheart.”

She said, and Avarice turned her attention to her sister.

“Lust….”

The woman said through grounded teeth, and Lust smiled at her.

“We’ll get there soon enough.  Now be good and let me continue the teasing.”

Lust then walked away from her sister and over to where Cid was complaining under his breath about the pain he was in.

“Ever had one of your own spears stab you?”

Lust asked, standing in front of the man with his spear pointed at his leg.

“Go to hell Bitch.  If it wasn’t for the guy your in head, we’d have beaten ya’ll already.  But then again, ya must be a bunch of cowards since you attacked us from behind.”

Lust rolled her eyes, then stabbed forward with the spear.  Cid gave a muffled yell in response.

“Big Sister Lust, the man on the other line is getting pissy!”

“Yeah, there was another voice that started talking just now that sounds rather pompous!”

Envy and Pride said from where they still held the phone.  Lust raised an eyebrow at this and twisted the spear slightly before leaving Cid to push out curses from between clenched teeth.

“Hand that to me please?”

She said, taking the phone once the two children handed it over.

“Hello, this is Lust speaking again.  It’s rude to be rude to children.”

“Reno, I know you can hear me.  I expect you to not let whatever that thing inside you to win.  Keep fighting.”

“Reno can’t talk right now.”

“And you, from what Reno could tell me about you, you don’t like this kind of violence you’re inflicting.”

The voice was so cool and sure, and from the dark of her mind she was sure she heard Reno calling out the name Rufus, that Lust took pause.

“You know nothing about me.  Reno doesn’t know me.”

“You don’t like your boss.  There is something about him that you despise am I correct?”

“You don’t-...!”

“Let me speak to Reno.”

Lust took in a deep breath, her eyes watering slightly.

“STOP TALKING ABOUT RENO!  I’M THE ONE WHO’S IN CONTROL!”

She shouted into the phone.

“STOP TREATING ME LIKE I’M NOT WORTH LISTENING TO!  STOP IGNORING ME! I’M THE ONE HERE, NOT HIM!”

“So there it is.  There is that hidden desire to be noticed.  Is the reason that you follow your boss because of that want?  All of your siblings and you wish to be noticed?”

Lust took in a deep breath then, then she shut off the phone call.

“Big Sis?”

“Lust?”

“Sister?”

“I…  I need to talk to the boss man.  Wrath… Where is he right now?”

Wrath’s eyes narrowed with concern, which looked odd on his face.

“Probably the machine room.”

He answered.  Lust ran off in the direction of said room not long after that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone, 
> 
> So just to let you know, I’m going back to school to get a second Bachelors degree and I also got a job. That means I will be super busy. I’m still going to be able to make the once a month posting if I can, but if I can’t please bear with me and I will try to post two chapters the next month to make up for that! Ily all and thank you for reading my fics! Hope to see you at the next chapter!~
> 
> -Misty


	17. On The Attack

Lust burst into the machine room in a flurry of anger and upset, making her way swiftly to the man who she had been looking for.

“My, my…  What ever is the matter my dear?  You had seemed to be in such good spirits earlier.”

The man was giving her an amused look, seeming to be feeding off her misery about the situation she had been placed in.

“Boss, don’t mess with me.  I am not in the mood for it.”

Lust snarled, staring down that man, daring to speak out against him as she was internally at war with herself.  She was going to be forcing herself into a majorly situation that would cause her gender dysphoria… And it was all because she wanted to get back at those that sought to upset her and belittle her.

“I…  I need this body to be male again.”

Her boss raised an eyebrow, only slightly surprised with the request.

“Oh?  Why do I get the feeling that really isn’t what you want?”

“Just do it!  Before I hate myself even more than I do right now!”

Her boss raised an eyebrow at the demand, but then held out his hand and allowed for the magic with which he used to change Lust's body to swirl around it and then encircle the woman, causing her to twitch slightly and hold herself as she felt her chest become that of what it had been before, and her curves vanish into hard lines and lean muscle.  She was ready to scream at her boss to stop, to change her body back to that of a woman's, but she needed to have Reno's look in order to get back at those who had decidedly made her out to be invalid. She wasn't invalid. She would show those Shin-Ra pricks who they were dealing with. She would finish them off in a quick minute, and then come back and get her body changed back to that of a woman and feel more normal.  This was not her time to feel like a man again. She hadn't begun to feel like that. So this was something she wanted over and done with so that she could feel comfortable in her own skin.

"How long are you going to want to be like this, my dear?"

She gave her boss a look at the question looking down at her slightly more callused and angular hands with a flinch.

"Not to long I hope.  I... I just need to take care of something first, then I want to be back to my comfort level."

She responded, clenching the hands into fists and looking up at her boss who was giving her a blank look.  The man had gone back to being uncaring and cold.

"I see.  Well don't take too long or you might catch me in the wrong mood to care."

The man responded, and Lust flinched bodily understanding what the man meant by that.

"I understand."

She responded, and then she was power walking out of the machine room.  She couldn't stay in that room much longer with knowing that the threat the man had just made was hanging in there.

* * *

Security had been upped since the call having been made to Shin-Ra from the Embodiments.  The uncertainty of the situation leaving a bitter taste in the Turks and Rufus’s mouths. The fact that one of the Embodiments had flat out tried to fool them by playing as though they were Reno, and then the one that was practically a parasite in the man’s body had started to lose it on Rude for trying to see if it was possible to bring Reno back, showed that they were willing to do a lot to keep hold of him.  It was starting to look like they would have to count Reno as dead and move on…. And again, there was quite the bitter taste for that. They were Turks. They dealt with death all the time. It didn't make knowing that soon one of their own would be amongst that number.

The Turks, currently in their office area, were all working through any papers and research they could find pertaining to what the Embodiments were.  Their eyes finding bits of jumbled information here and unfinished sentences there. It was clear it was Hojo who was to blame for this mess, and they needed to know what they were getting into before they went after the AVALANCHE group and tried to take out the harmful competition.  It wasn't long ago that they started this endeavor but they were sure they were on the right track. Things slowly making themselves known amongst the pieces.

There were times when they pieced together all the small bits of information they found within Hojo's notes in such a way that it started to show what a certain Embodiment was like.  To have one in one's body was like a death sentence for the one who was being taken over. There was no guarantee that the original personality would come back if the Embodiment was removed from the host.  They all listened to one main Embodiment who claimed itself to be that of the leader of the Underworld, someone who the Life Stream had cast out and left to rot on Earth in such a manner that the being created enough negative energy to create their own world parallel to Earth.  But the most interesting thing they found was what Hojo had written in his notes about every person this Embodiment took over, seemed to have an extremely short life span, and the Embodiment took energy from the other Embodiments, once they were placed in hosts, as a way to sustain itself.

"Hojo created all this while he was under Rufus's father...  Why on Gaia would he think any of these were a good idea to create?"

Elena asked, shuffling a document off to the side, having found it to be not useful for what they were looking for.

"Why did he create a lot of what he did?  He was mad Elena. Madness drives those with dark thoughts to do dark things."

Tseng responded, walking over and place a cup of coffee on the woman's desk, giving her hair a light kiss, before moving back over to his own desk in order to look over the papers he had left there when he went for the coffee.  Elena looked up and gave him a soft smile at his actions, nodding her head in thanks, before her eyes were once again landed on the documents in front of her.

"I don't care about the fact that he made them.  I care about the fact that one of them is inside of my partner, and may very well lead to his death."

Rude growled from his desk, dark circles becoming home under his eyes, visible underneath his signature sunglasses.  He hadn't been getting a lot of sleep since this whole thing had begun, less after his fight with Envy, and now he was so tense that he probably woudn't sleep well until the final conclusion was reached, and the final battle ended.  Tseng sighed at his co-workers words, brows furrowed as he thought over what the man had said, and as he focused on the words in front of him.

"We all knew what we were signing up for when we joined Shin-Ra as Turks, Rude.  I believe that Reno would rather be dead than used as a weapon against us. He may be a bit sloppy sometimes, but he is a Turk through and through.  He's dedicated to this job. Let's not fail him by allowing his body to be used against us."

Tseng's voice was resigned, but a little remorseful as he spoke those words, but that did little to stop Rude from pounding his fist on his desk in an uncharacteristic show of anger.

"Why's it always Reno?  We all go through some shit on this job...  But he seems to always draw the shortest stick."

The man demanded, his voice holding emotions that normally would not be expressed in it.

"I'm sick of it!  He's my partner, I'm supposed to have his back, but I always seem to be too late in the worst ways when it matters."

Rude took off his sunglasses then, rubbing the bridge of his nose as he tried to reign in his emotions once more, taking controlled breaths as he avoided looking over at his fellow Turks, who were giving him sympathetic (or as close to it as possible in Tseng's case) looks.

"Focus that feeling so that you can use it against our enemy Rude."

Tseng said, gaining the others attention as he was slipping on his sunglasses.

"We Turks always strike back against those who have wronged us."

Rude took another deep breath and nodded at Tseng saying this.  Right then, the sound of the intruder alarm started to go off, and Tseng was quick to grab his desk phone to patch into the security office.

"Status report!"

He demanded into the device, tone stern and business-like.

"One intruder, Sir!"

The Security Guard in charge of the camera room reported, watching as the person took down yet another guard with ease.

"One?  How far have they gotten?"

Tseng asked, signalling for his comrades to get ready while pulling out his own gun from his desk.

"They're heading for the stairs, Sir!  And Sir... You're not going to believe this...  Or maybe you will... But it's Reno, Sir! Or... At least his body.  Looks like the enemy came to us!"

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed this! Hope you will return for the next chapter.


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